13 May 1928

The first South African set in May came on this day in Durban when the one-armed runner from Vryheid , Marthinus Steytler , broke the national record of Olympic champion Kennedy McArthur with his 2:41:35 . McArthur had run 2:42:58.2 in 1910 , two years before he won the gold medal in Stockholm . Earlier in 1928 Steytler , who the previous year had won the first Durban Athletic Club Marathon , had run a phenomenal 2:26:37 in Paarl – faster than the World Record – but the course was found to be two miles short . Later in 1928 , Steytler was the country ’ s only representative in the Olympic Marathon in Amsterdam , where he finished 40th in 2:57:21 . In 1930 , he won the SA Marathon in Johannesburg .

7 May 1932

The mile is the event with the most national records set in the fifth month , with six occurrences The first of these came on this day in Stellenbosch ( where

Harold Thompson

the first sub-4 minute mile would be run 32 years later ) when Harold Thompson broke the previous mark of Danie Jacobs by 1.4 seconds with his 4:21.2 . This came just more than a month after he had won the SA title in Durban in 4:24.4 ( he also won the 800m ), and he would win the mile title again in 1933 and 1934 . Interestingly enough , the next two May mile records both came on the 8th day of the month , in 1937 and 1954 .

31 May 1965

In the first few years of the Peninsula Marathon , the race was always run on Republic Day , 31 May ( except for the first one , which was held on 1 June ). On this day , the second running of the marathon , policeman Willie Olivier scored a fairly easy victory by almost three minutes over defending champion Dave Wassung . Olivier ’ s 2:27:30 was almost identical to Wassung ’ s 2:27:28 the previous year . There were seventeen finishers , all men , with South Africa ’ s first sub-4 minute miler , De Villiers Lamprecht , eighth in 2:49:54 . Although Lamprecht set a national record of 2:20:42.5 the next year ( which was surpassed by Olivier ’ s 2:20:21 in the 1968 Peninsula Marathon , also on 31 May ), he never won Cape Town ’ s premier marathon .

Willie Olivier

27 May 1972

International competition for South Africans in the seventies was quite rare . Having already set three SA records for 1500m , one for the 5000m and one for the mile ( 3:56.4 , a world-leading performance ) in 1972 , Fanie van Zijl made the most of his opportunity at the 31st running of the California Relays in Modesto . Wearing his PUK ( Potchefstroom University ) colours , the SA Champion in both the 1500m and 5000m delivered a superb performance against top

Americans and improved his national mile record to 3:56.0 , with Juris Luzins second in 3:58.2 and Duncan MacDonald third in 3:58.4 , both personal bests . At the end of the year , Van Zijl ’ s time was the fourthfastest in the world , with the world list being led by Jim Ryun ’ s 3:52.8 .

7 May 1979

In the late seventies , a great rivalry existed between South Africa ’ s two best female distance runners . At the SA Championships during the last weekend of April 1979 , held in Potchefstroom , Sarina Cronje beat Sonja Laxton in both the 1500m and 3000m . On this evening , they met again on the Coetzenburg track in Stellenbosch , and a thrilling race between the two stars resulted in Cronje becoming the first South

Sarina Cronje ( left ) and Sonja Laxton

Fanie van Zijl

Images : Courtesy Dewald Steyn , Richard Mayer , Villanova University